Knives are perhaps the most ubiquitous simple tools in the world. Practically all households have a battery of kitchen knives for slicing and preparing food, jackknives or pen knives for various odd jobs, and utility knives for opening boxes and cutting twine. Hobbyists of various descriptions add a complement of hunting knives, skiving knives, knives for diving, fishing, camping, woodcarving, and various other recreational activities. Many mechanized labor-saving devices, such as food processors and lawnmowers, also contain edged components that can be classified as knives. Whatever a knife is used for, its utility generally depends on maintaining a keen edge. Dull kitchen knives, for instance, bruise the food they are intended to cut, and can slip and cause injury. Good steel and serration can hold friction at bay, but eventually every kind of knife must be sharpened, or replaced.
Sharpening with hand tools, however, can require more time and patience than many people are willing to invest. Power sharpeners have their own issues: if they are convenient they tend to produce a suboptimal edge, and if they are effective sharpeners they can also easily damage the knife blade, grinding it down or rounding its tip. Most automatic sharpeners also lack versatility when dealing with the various forms of knife blades that exist and need sharpening.
Therefore, there remains a need for an easy-to-use and efficient automated knife-sharpening system.